tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088364834485740535.post7149784366461637548..comments2023-11-02T00:58:31.021-07:00Comments on Rocket Song: Sharing the PieMark Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079931981472939913noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088364834485740535.post-42140034237125254892008-09-05T22:57:00.000-07:002008-09-05T22:57:00.000-07:00The biggest problem with a single payer system is ...The biggest problem with a single payer system is that it causes health care to be rationed.<BR/><BR/>Talk to a Canadian sometime who has been told "Sorry, your kidney dialysis is scheduled for two weeks after you die"<BR/><BR/>Or here is a better example, talk to someone who relies on the VA for their health care. Perfect example of what happens when you let the US Government run a health care system.<BR/><BR/>And I agree, we have serious issues with health care. I pay hundreds each month and don't see very much benefit. They manage to weasel out of most payments.<BR/><BR/>More government is not the solution, to this problem or almost any other problem though.<BR/><BR/>I don't think we will ever solve our issues with health care until we have serious tort reform. I known several doctors, good folks who are professional top notch caregivers. What they have to pay for malpractice insurance would make your brain bleed.Mark Horninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09079931981472939913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088364834485740535.post-30291537035057516592008-09-05T14:35:00.000-07:002008-09-05T14:35:00.000-07:00See, I'm not sure that it is possible to convince ...See, I'm not sure that it is possible to convince me that universal, socialized medical care is worse than what we have now, or worse than what an unregulated free market can create. <BR/><BR/>We pay hundreds of dollars a month for insurance coverage. The insurance company pays a fraction of what an uninsured person would pay for catastrophic emergency care.<BR/><BR/>For example, D got into a hit-and-run accident on his motor bike last winter. The total hospital bill was something like $25,000, and he was't even badly hurt. No CT scans, just xrays and some lab work. The insurance company pays about $2000. (This doesn't even get into the radiation treatment for the tumors, or the surgery down at Stanford, which literally would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars - more money than we could ever afford).<BR/><BR/>The sheer volume of paperwork generated by the game of "who has to pay for this" accounts for huge amounts of markup in the medical industry. Single payer universal coverage would eliminate much of that, without forcing anyone to ever have to choose between a life saving medical treatment and a dizzying debt. <BR/><BR/>I doubt I would pay more in increased taxes than I currently do in insurance premiums, simply because there would be no defaulted bills and no games of "preexisiting conditions/double insurance coverage/partial coverage for out-of-network providers." <BR/><BR/>A truly capitalistic free market economy would take advantage of the fact that a person will pay any price for that life saving medical procedure, and that just isn't right.catniphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15692525615906178971noreply@blogger.com